Six Nations 2014 Preview

The annual clash of the northern-hemisphere rugby titans returns to our screens this weekend in what is, as ever, an impossible-to-predict Six Nations. Every team has the potential to do well. England and Wales are arguably the current in-form teams, Ireland and France are not far behind and even Scotland and Italy are in with a chance of winning some games. I would argue that this is shaping up to be an exceptionally tight championship.

Last year there were some surprises: France finished last for the first time since 1999, despite having gone into the championship as joint-favourites with England; Ireland joined them at the bottom of the table, even though they beat eventual champions Wales on the opening weekend; Scotland and Italy came 3^rd and 4^th respectively, their best showings for a number of years and Wales beat England in a tense thriller to win back-to-back championships for the first time since 1974.

Every game was hard-fought and the standard of rugby across all six teams was arguably the best it’s been since the birth of the 6 Nations in 2000.

So from our experiences of 2013, you would think that anyone who stuck their neck out and made a prediction for this year’s edition is either unquestionably brave or clinically insane. I am both. To any Italians and Scots reading this I apologise, but this season I can only see these two teams propping up the table. Why? Well, they both have most of their games on the road and although they’ve both been playing some great rugby over the past 12 months I don’t think that they have improved enough to grind-out victories without home support.

That leaves us with a four-way fight for the championship: Wales look strong on paper but didn’t cut the mustard in the autumn internationals; England were the only team to beat one of the southern-hemisphere’s big three in the autumn but have injury concerns in the backs and may struggle as the tournament progresses. Ireland came close to beating the All Blacks in November and appear to be in some sort of form but my tip for this year, and I will be shunned by my own countrymen for saying this, is France.

True, they were appalling last year but I believe that that will spurn them on to fight harder than ever. When you look at their squad there is a great deal of class and competition for each position as well as a great deal of pressure to perform. It will be tight this year and there will undoubtedly be some major shocks but at the end of the day, rugby will be the ultimate winner.